Classic pay-TV recorded a decline in revenues in Germany in 2020 from €2.4 billion (2019) to €2.1 billion.
The number of subscribers remained unchanged at around 8 million, suggesting that customers are spending less money on pay-TV. More money, however, was spent on subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services, boosting their revenues from €1.2 billion (2019) to €1.6 billion.
The total market for pay-TV and paid video content increased from €3.8 billion (2019) to €4.2 billion, according to the new report Pay-TV and Paid-VOD in Germany 2020/2021 (in German) published by commercial broadcasters’ industry association VAUNET. For 2021, an increase to around €4.5 billion is forecast.
SVOD revenues are expected to rise to around €1.8 billion in 2021, while the report expects pay-TV revenues to remain unchanged at around €2.1 billion.
The number of SVOD subscribers was 17.5 million in 2020 and is expected to exceed the 20 million mark for the first time in the current year, according to the forecast. In the entire German-speaking region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), revenues from pay-TV and paid video increased from €4.5 billion (2019) to around €5 billion in 2020. The figure is expected to grow to around €5.4 billion in 2021.
“Pay-TV and paid video-on-demand revenues have doubled in the past 10 years from €2 billion in 2012 to over €4 billion today. This growth trend continues in 2020 and 2021, which are marked by the Corona pandemic. The growth drivers are the video-on-demand services, which an increasing number of people subscribe to and which and are often used in addition to pay-TV,” said VAUNET Managing Director Frank Giersberg in Berlin.
